Mining industry worried about Democrat-controlled Congress

[NVMojo]

The coal mining industry really needs to be worried ...

RENO, Nev. (AP) - The new Democrat-controlled Congress will be largely hostile to the U.S. mining industry on everything from taxes to environmental regulation, a top industry lobbyist warned Friday.

"The next two years are going to be extremely challenging for the mining industry, there's no two ways about it," said Dan Gerkin, the National Mining Association's senior vice president for government affairs.

New Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is a longtime friend and ally of the industry but "in simple terms, we're going to have more critics and fewer friends in Congress," Gerkin said.

"I assure you, environmental issues are going to be a priority in the new Congress," he told delegates at the 112th Northwest Mining Association convention.

"Many of the new committee and subcommittee chairmen are not sympathetic to mining - and that's kind of an understatement," he said. "We're going to be playing a lot more defense and a lot less offense."

The legislative outlook was in stark contrast to the tone of most of the five-day conference entitled "Sustaining the Boom," where an estimated 2,000 delegates celebrated some of the highest gold and metal prices ever.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/dec/08/120810940.html

[Trajan]

1. Well ? ... When youve been up for so damned long ....

EVERYTHING looks down from here on out ....

They should be thinking like the oil industry: They had their moment in the sun, now they can go home and count their ill gotten, untaxed spoils ... courtesy of the nation-fucking cabal in the GOP ....

[NVMojo]

3. I keep wondering about Reid ...his son-in-law works for the National Mining Association ...

[TygrBright]

2. Yep. Worry, assholes. ALL you extraction-industry Visigoths, be afraid. Be very afraid. n/t

[brentspeak]

4. Mining companies don't want the days of exploiting hapless miners to go away

[PsN2Wind]

5. We certainly shouldn't allow Congress

to revisit the 1872 Mining Law allowing ownership of public lands to be passed to private companys for a pittance.

[Vidar]

6. That's a good sign, but I'm sure some snivelling DINOs will

scurry to reassure the assholes.